Newmarket-on-Fergus trainer John Brassil was on the mark at last week’s Limerick Christmas Racing Festival when his 8-1 shot The Bosses Nephew ran out a good winner of Thursday’s Family Funday at LRC Veterans Handicap Chase.Third in a point-to-point earlier this season, the son of Flemensfirth jumped superbly all through and, having hit the front three out, the 10-year-old powered away under up-and-coming jockey, Eddie O’Connell, to beat runner-up, Doctor Woodfield by five lengths.Brassil, who has enjoyed a long and successful association with The Bosses Nephew’s Castletownroche, County Cork owner, Edward Farrell, reported, “I had this horse in an open lightweight at Dromahane on New Year’s Eve but I said we’d come here instead as he loves this place and never runs a bad race here. Eddie (O’Connell) gave him a great ride; we’ll have to look for something similar somewhere for him now.”The Limerick festival was a huge success, with good crowds turning up each day at the Greenmount …

The Clare Soccer League’s schedule was disrupted again when all but one of the fixtures for bank holiday Monday were cancelled.In the only game played, Ennis Town Rock travelled to Lisdoonvarna and scored a comfortable win over the home side, Burren United. Burren Utd 1  Ennis Town Rock  4 Debutant David Reidy scored twice as Ennis Town Rock emerged as comfortable winners over Burren United in this tie played at Lisdoonvarna on Sunday.The Ennis teenager scored twice in the opening half, at the end of which the visitors were 2-0 in front.Early second-half goals from Ritchie Neylon and Stephen Hickey doubled their advantage and put them in a commanding position.The home side pulled one back through Enda Coughlan after a free-kick rebounded off the crossbar. Burren United: Ian McInerney; Barry O’Grady, Stephen Moloney, Enda Coughlan, Michael Keating, Alex Garcia, Evan Talty, Chris Mozeck, Noel Downes, Pat Nagle, Martin McDonagh.Subs: John McDonagh, Donal HowleyEnnis Town Rock: Stephen Loftus; Barry Woods, Ronan …

Former Clare hurling manager Ger ‘Sparrow’ O’Loughlin got his name among the winners at the Galway Greyhound Racing Stadium meeting on December 30.His aptly named Sparrows Monty, trained in Ballyea by John Browne, was installed as the 6-4 favourite for an S5-S6 graded 350-yard race and after breaking well from trap three, the son of Head Bound-Barntick Live drew away from the rest of the field to win by a handsome margin of nearly seven lengths from the Oughterard-owned, Loose Sugan, in trap two. The clock for this race was 19.48.Frank Casey, Stonehall, Newmarket-on-Fergus, was another who came away satisfied after his Boherash Torpedo obliged in the fifth race, an A6-graded 525. This was a fairly open contest with Boherash Torpedo, Own Collision and French Malabra all going off at 2-1. Boherash Torpedo had a trap two draw and after leading at the opening bend, he left the rest of the field behind him for the remainder of the trip. …

The inclement weather conditions of the past week disrupted competition schedules at golf clubs across the county. Many of the proposed competitions did not take place. Club officials will be keeping their fingers crossed conditions will improve this week as the 2012 schedules get underway.Kilrush There was a mixed scramble in aid of a club defibrillator on December 27 when the winners were Michael Hogan, Tom Clarke and Margaret Clune from Tom Prendeville, Paddy Carmody and Ailish Lorrigan. In third place were Pat Shannon, Murt Collins, Pat Shannon (Cranny) and Brendan McNamara.To date, €1,300 has been raised for the project, led by Mary Collins. Plans are now being put in place for the hosting of the North Munster section of the Munster Junior Cup on the weekend of June 30 and July 1.PortumnaThe winners of the December three-ball were Odran Duice (14), Eoin Slattery (15) and Padraic Cahalan (28) with 55 points from Mike Fannon (17) Kevin Cooney (14) and …